Ed Thorpe: About me...
I am a policy generalist who specialises in helping organisations to communicate their knowledge and messages more effectively, facilitate networking and exchange amongst their stakeholders and monitor and evaluate the successes and challenges of their ongoing work.
I strongly believe that the key to fulfilling the above tasks successfully and the best way to avoid the mistakes made by many others is to focus on understanding stakeholder needs, listening to the people closest to the action and keeping one’s own ego out of the process.
I am a UK national whose European outlook was transformed by participation in European youth projects around the turn of the millennium. I had the opportunity to work in a shop in France and a service for adults with autism in Spain before I created and ran my first transnational cooperation project in 2001 – organising exchange visits between autism associations in the UK and Spain.
I turned my newfound passion for European networking into a career when I moved to Brussels in 2002 to take on the role of Acting Director of Autism Europe. I built a strong understanding of the value and challenges of European NGO networks here and in subsequent work with AGE-Platform Europe, the European Anti Poverty Network and the European Social Platform.
In 2006, I created my own small company, Thorpe European Services, specialising in supporting European projects and networks. I have facilitated seminars, debates and workshops, evaluated projects and networks and conducted organisational strategic reviews. My strong abilities to write clear, structured written content have led me into a range of communications roles, from Communications Manager at the ENRD Contact Point to supporting networks and institutions on ad-hoc written materials on policy and practice.
Currently based between the UK and Brussels, I enjoy writing clear, understandable content. I love facilitating networking and exchange and I am passionate about helping good organisations to be the best they can be.